Disparities in Access to Driver Education for Teens as a Health and Mobility Equity Issue

Teens who complete behind-the-wheel (BTW) driver education (DE) are able to secure early licensure and are less likely to crash in their early years as a motorist. Disparities in accessibility to BTW DE are therefore disparities in health outcomes (crashes) and mobility (i.e., ability to secure early licensure). The following research grant is to support a stream of research focused on disparities in access to BTW DE, and therefore, safe driving skills and early licensure, for teens. Using inferential statistics and non-parametric statistical techniques, the team will identify economic, racial, and spatial disparities in accessibility to BTW DE by correlating individual data with propensity to engage in DE (Aim 1). The research team will further investigate the disparities in the acquisition of specific safe driving skills by linking individual data with VDA results (Aim 2). As disparities in accessibility to BTW DE are disparities in health outcomes and mobility, the team's research will uncover an actionable way forward to directly address healthy and mobility equity. The research team has assembled a completely novel database of over 18,000 Ohio teens, which includes the following individual-level data: state licensing data, crash data, and DE completion data; household-level data matched with transportation urban planning-related open data; and results from the Virtual Driving Assessment (VDA), a virtual driving skills measurement test the researchers' broader team at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia administers to learner drivers. Advanced spatial modeling techniques allow us to collect Socio-economic status data related to home address, and calculate impedance to the nearest DE center. The research team's project will investigate the following: Aim 1: Identify individual factors that are most strongly correlated with a teen engaging in BTW DE and early licensure. The research team's early findings at the census tract level tell us that average income is most correlated with a teen pursuing BTW training and early licensure; variables such as activity density and travel distance to BTW DE are also correlated, but more slightly. By matching home address with home value data, the research team assembles the data set that allows us to test the hypothesis directly that income is the strongest predictor of a teen engaging in BTW DE and pursuing early licensure. Moreover, the research team hypothesizes that an individual’s race, as well as details related to the density of their neighborhood (i.e., the collocation of activities), is related to their propensity to engage in BTW DE/early licensure, with BTW DE completion being lower among minority teens. If the research team's hypotheses are correct, it will showcase the deep disparities in who is most like to avoid a crash outcome and the mobility that comes with early licensure. Aim 2: Identify individual factors that are most strongly correlated with specific acquisition of safe driving skills. The research team has proved the direct correlation between BTW training completion and reduced crash rates in teens; they aim now to correlate the acquisition of specific safe driving skills with the completion of BTW training. The research team's hypothesis is that teens who have completed BTW DE are both overall less risky drivers and have a stronger ability to scan for and respond to hazards/other road users. If the research team's hypotheses are correct, it will showcase the criticality of training drivers from a public health perspective, for individual well-being and to reduce threats to all road users. This project is a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania Department of City and Regional Planning, the Children Hospital of Philadelphia, and the State of Ohio Department of Public Safety.

• Record URL:
  https://ppms.cit.cmu.edu/projects/detail/473

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $60138
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552344811

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Carnegie Mellon University

  Safety21 National UTC for Promoting Safety
  Pittsburgh, PA  United States  15213

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Center Program
  ,    
• Managing Organizations:

  Carnegie Mellon University

  Safety21 National UTC for Promoting Safety
  Pittsburgh, PA  United States  15213
• Project Managers:

  Stearns, Amy

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Pennsylvania

  ,    
• Principal Investigators:

  Ryerson, Megan

• Start Date: 20230701
• Expected Completion Date: 20240630
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Access; Driver education; Driver licensing; Equity; Health; Income; Mobility; Teenage drivers
• Geographic Terms: Pennsylvania
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01900362
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Safety21
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552344811
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Nov 21 2023 6:07PM